Search This Blog

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Big Numbers

We all like big numbers, so I decided to collect some.

Googol:
10 to the 100th power
Or 10 with 100 zeros
10,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000.

Googolplex:
10 to the 10 to the 100
Or 10 with Googol zeros

Googlplexian:
10 with Googolplex zeros

These numbers are stupidly big. If the Universe were filled with tiny particles, Googolplexian still represents a higher value than all of their quantum states. An area's quantum states is the number of possible combinations all  the atoms inside it can be arranged.
These are a bit smaller, but more recognisable:

Millinillion, or Quingentilliard:
10 to the 3003
Or 10 with 3003 zeros

Mole:
6.022 x 10 to the 23
Or
602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
A Mole is used in chemistry and physics. If a Mole of one type of atom weighs 22g, the mass number of the atoms will be 22.

Myriakis-myriostas periodu myriakis-myrioston arithmon myriai myriades
A number invented by Aristotle, it's a one followed by 80 quadrillion zeros

Skewe's Number:
10 to the 10 to the 10 to the 1000

Graham's Number:
Take 3. Then put 3 to the 3 to the 3 to the 3. That is 3 to the 27, or about 7.6 trillion. That is G1. To find G2, put 3 to the 3 G1 times. Do this all the way until you get to G64, which is G, or Graham's Number. Don't even try to imagine how big it is, because it would make your brain collapse into a black hole. We don't even know the whole thing, only the last 500 digits.

The Yottabyte:
The Yottabyte is the biggest recognised data unit. It is one septillion bytes. One Yottabyte on microSDXC cards would just about fill the Great Pyramid at Giza, or on terabyte hard drives cover Delaware and Rhode Island

Yottas:
You can make your own big numbers! Yotta is a Latin term, meaning to the power of 24. A Yottabyte is 10 to the 24 bytes. You can apply Yottas  to almost any measurement: Yottavolt, Yottagram, Yottameter, Yottajoule, Yottakelvin, Yottameter, etc.


Sorry, other numbers. No one can ever be bigger than infinity. Even infinity is smaller that infinity.

Lots:
Here is a game you can play. You need at least 2 players, two pieces of paper, and two pens. Each player has 10 seconds to write the biggest number they can think of. It cannot be an algorithm! X to the power of Y does not count. It can't be the name (Graham's number) or another form (G55, from Grahams' number). If this is too easy, and you just turbo-write 9s for 10 seconds, play Lots Extreme. You can use algorithms, names, and the G type numbers. Be sure you have a digital calculator or phone with internet. Originally, shipwreck victims would draw lots, and the loser would get eaten.

1 comment: